Saturday, February 16, 2013

-I’ve raved about this
already but I recently read an ARC of REBOOT by Amy Tintera and it’s so awesome
y’all. You don’t understand. You need to preorder this one or at the very least
add it to your Goodreads to-read list.

-This birthday cake I made
for my son. Anyone who follows me on twitter or who is a friend on my personal
Facebook will have seen this picture already, but this beast took me hours to
make and I think that at least earns me bragging rights via several social media
forums. Witness the handmade construction signs, the “dirt”, the construction
tape around the base…tell me that is not one cool cake for a 3 year old! (It's lopsided but ignore that part).

-This gift basket. After I
heard that I’d landed an agent to represent film/TV rights for HEXED, my sister
surprised me with this. It’s possibly the most thoughtful gift in the history
of ever, for several reasons. Firstly, I wasn’t expecting it AT ALL. Like, not
even a little bit. Secondly, because it’s so well thought out. The theme on
this one is “Movie Night”. Inside are movies, plus the books that inspired
them. She even got me Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, which is especially
thoughtful since my editor, Wendy, edited that series. There’s also nachos and
salsa—my favorite!—and a cozy TV blanket that matches my living room décor. How
awesome is this gift?

-And finally....Fancy websites are awesome!!! I asked the completely amazing Hafsah over at Icey Designs to take on the task
of designing me a new website and blog. I forewarned her that I’m
picky—incredibly picky—but ahh, how she doubted. I think I can now safely speak for
her when I say that she probably needs therapy for post traumatic stress disorder, along
with the photographer who took my author photo and my husband. BUT, we came out of it with such a fantastic website that I like to think it was all worth it (We won’t ask Hafsah her
opinion on that). But seriously, bless that woman. She’s a saint.

Thus, this blog will be
moving in a few days. My website is already up and running, and I'm so excited to finally share it with everyone! Check it out!!!!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Approximately 3756 times a day I get asked when my book is
coming out, and nearly 100% of the queriers are SHOCKED when I tell them that it
isn’t until March 2014. (And I got my book deal almost a year ago, so imagine
the shock when I got asked back then!). Often times when I give this response,
someone mentions their friend or relative whose book is coming out next month,
and wants to know why mine isn’t coming out that soon too.

Fair enough.

But it’s a bit of complicated answer, so to save anyone from
having to hear my awkward, rambling, nonsensical speech once again, I thought
it was about time I did a blog post for the non-writers in my life to explain.

There are a couple different ways a person can go about getting
a book published. One of them is traditional publishing and another is
self-publishing.

Traditional publishing is when a publishing house (such as
Random House, Harper Collins, etc) buys the book rights from the author. They
pay the author an advance against future earnings, edit the book together with
the author, design and package the book, market the book, and distribute the book
to the public.

With self-publishing, the author basically becomes their own
publisher. The author provides the funds to publish their book (for example on
Amazon), as well as to create a cover. The author is also responsible for editing,
marketing, distribution, etc. of their book.

Both forms of publishing are valid ways to get a book out
there into reader’s hands. Each has their own positive and negative aspects,
and no one way one way is better than the other. But I’m not going to get into
detail on that because that’s not the point of this post (and also no sane
author willingly enters a conversation about traditional versus
self-publishing).

Why my book is taking so long to come out:

When you self-publish a book, you’re in charge—your book comes
out when you’re ready to put it out. When you publish through a traditional
publisher it takes much longer to see your book on the shelf (on average 1-2
years from the time you get a book deal).

My book is coming out through a traditional publisher:
Random House.

1-2 years is a long time, right? Some might say painfully
long. But a lot goes on in that time. A LOT. Here are some of the things:

The book’s editor writes an editorial letter for
the author, marking all the areas that she thinks need work on a broader level.
This can be anything from ‘This character isn’t working for me’ to ‘I think
this particular plot needs re-thinking’. The letter can be anywhere from a single
page to 30 pages long (a friend’s letter was 28 pages!). Creating this letter takes
time—sometimes upwards of a few months as editors have many authors on their
list and other demands on their time. Of course it also takes time to complete
the changes after the author receives the letter, also sometimes months. Once
the changes are made and the author ships the book back to the editor, the
editor needs to read it again and:

Line edit, which is basically when the editor
goes through the manuscript looking for issues on a sentence level (And that’s
if you’re lucky enough to get through just one round of major edits!). The
editor is now looking for things like awkward wording, repeat words, sentences
or paragraphs that need clarifying, etc. The editor then sends the line-edited
manuscript to the author to review, make changes, and send back. When this is
done:

The book goes to the copy editor, who looks for
spelling and grammar errors that may have been missed and also for consistency
issues. In my experience, copyeditors are geniuses. (Fun fact: If you’re my
copyeditor, then you had to properly format ‘I want to tap that ass’ with the
right quotation marks. I like to think that she loved her life when this
happened). The author then receives the copyedited manuscript to read over,
accept the changes, and send back to the editor. After this comes:

First page passes, wherein the book is printed
out with the proper font and spacing that will appear in the final book. This
is sent to the author, who will read it over, accept, and then send back to the
editor. Are you noticing a trend here? After this comes:

Advance reading copies (ARCs): these are
uncorrected advanced copies of the book that come out several months before
publication. They’re sent to reviewers and book bloggers and are used in
giveaways and probably a lot of other things I don’t know about yet because I’m
not yet at this stage.

Of course during all this time, there’s a lot
going on behind the curtains that the author never sees. The art department is
busy creating a beautiful cover for the book. Marketing and publicity are generating
media and public interest in your book. The subsidiary rights team is hawking
your book to foreign publishers all over the world. And I know I’m probably
missing many steps here.

This is all to say: it seems like a LONG time (and it is a LONG
time), but a lot of really great and important stuff is going on during that
time. So it’s all good. And stuff.

I’m starting to wonder if this blog post was more to make me
feel better.

**For a complete guide to publishing from the point when the
book is written see author Alison Cherry’s post here. Also add her book to Goodreads while you’re at it!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

A friend of mine claims to dislike YA. It’s shocking and awful
and hard to believe, but it actually gets worse: Paulina This nameless
pal of mine says she doesn’t just dislike YA, she *hates* it.

Where is a fainting couch when you need one?

So this is obviously unacceptable and must be rectified
immediately. And so I’ve struck a deal with my friend. A deal wherein she can
only say she hates YA after she reads ten books of my recommendation. Being a
good sport, she’s agreed.

I’ve thought long and hard about what books to recommend. This
is obviously really important, and I feel a big responsibility to get it
right. At first I tried to tailor my suggestions to the adult books ,my friend
likes, but in the end I decided to go with my gut and pick my absolute
favorite, 5 star reads. Books that I devoured in a day. Books that made me stay
up late in the night, be late for work, and neglect personal hygiene to read. I
hope I’ve made the right decision!

And so without further ado, here they are. The books that will
convert Paulina to a YA lover:

·Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

·The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

·The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

·Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

·Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

·Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie
Perkins

·Graceling by Kristin Cashore

·Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

·On the Jellicoe Road by Melina
Marchetta

·Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Can’t
wait to hear what she thinks! (Also, I’m jealous of her life that she gets to
read all these amazing books for the first time.)

Monday, February 4, 2013

I have a
film agent! Jody Hotchkiss at Hotchkiss and Associates will be representing film/TV
rights for HEXED.

Jody
recently sold the film rights for ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD to Stephanie Meyer of
Twilight fame…and now he’s repping my book! How freaking cool is that?! There
aren’t enough exclamation marks to express my excitement over this.

***To be
clear, this doesn’t mean the book is being made into a movie or even that anyone
bought the rights, but I now have a film agent who loves the book and is
looking to sell the rights, which is a step in the right direction.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Five years ago, Wren
Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as
a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer
Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the
deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves
as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part
of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s
ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too
slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her
out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to
follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll
have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does,
she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does
around Callum.

The perfect soldier is
done taking orders.

Guys, real talk: this book is too good. I am reduced to one and
two word sentences after reading this book.

-Badass

-Romantic

-Thrilling

-Fast-paced

-Sexy

-Callum so sexy

-Want Callum

-So bad

It’s hard to understand how one book could be this amazing. I
loved every single minute of my life while reading REBOOT. Do yourself a favor
and add this one to your Goodreads list. Preorder it. Stand in line at your
local bookstore until it comes out in May. Stalk the author on twitter or in
real life until she agrees to give you an advance copy (Okay, so maybe not that
last one).

Just do whatever it legally takes to get this
book into your life. You’ll thank me later.